A Magical voyage across the pond TRIP REPORT UPDATED 12/31 - Page 42 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Good to hear that the seas won't be rough on the next part of your voyage! Your dinner is off to a good start as the baked brie and soup look so good! I know I'd enjoy these. The lobster app doesn't look nearly as good and as you said it wasn't. Looking forward to your entree and dessert!
Coming right up now... I hope... I've just had a massive update to Microsoft Office which has prevented me from getting anything done over the last couple of hours...
Tuesday 11 September – part ten: do you know Bolt?
Now here is where things went wrong for some of us anyway in our dinner at Lumiere’s. I guess I did well with my dinner last night, so I was due a bum night. I went for the oven-baked salmon royale with sautéed Swiss chard, truffled cauliflower puree and a white wine beurre blanc sauce. Mari had the same and we both immediately said the same thing – the salmon was dry and overdone.
When Simone, our head server, came around and started to ask how the food was, we did say something. As at breakfast, he disappeared as soon as he could, but in fairness to him, he was back a few minutes later with the chef to apologise to us.
In fairness to him, Mark had the Chatueabriand-roasted fillet steak with crushed new potatoes with shalllots, buttered green beans, a red wine jus and a béarnaise sauce on the side (yes he was feeling better and eating again – thank goodness! ) and he said that was the best cooked steak he'd had in a long time, so it wasn’t all negative…
I was the only one to have dessert. I went for the Grand Marnier souffle with Grand Marnier crème anglaise and that was superb.
Now, after this, there was a huge discussion with Andrae about our meals tonight and the fact that we hadn’t been happy with them. It was also brought up that people weren’t overly happy with the night before’s either, so he brought out the menu for tomorrow night. Wouldn’t you know it, it was my nemesis menu from Animator’s Palate? Oh no, there was me thinking it had gone and it was still here. I explained that I’d tried just about everything on it and had no luck with anything, it was always all terrible, so Andrae asked what we wanted.
Ok right then – we started to put in customised orders, although my pleas for the sea scallops from Palo couldn’t be delivered, as apparently they’re not allowed to compete with Palo. Boo! It should be interesting to a) see what turns up tomorrow night and b) what it’s like, having been specially cooked for us…
Mark even put in an order for the Grand Marnier souffle tomorrow night, as we really wanted it, but didn’t feel it was a good idea after last night, which I completely understood, so that’s also down on the list.
You really cannot criticise Andrae at all – he really is doing his best to look after us, and even Simone, who I thought was just being offhand, is actually Ok. I’m pretty pleased with our serving team, which makes a pleasant change from some other cruises we’ve been on…
Now I’d noticed the rose emblem in Andrae (and the other server’s) outfits earlier, so I asked if I could get a photo of him in it, as he looked so smart. He asked what pose I wanted and I asked what he had… this is what I got!
As Andrae is from Jamaica, I said “you could always do a Bolt” and he did!
Then we got chatting, as I asked if he knew him. I was expecting him to say as heck it’s a bit like people asking if we know the Royal family (we don’t, just in case you were wondering ) but it turns out they went to the same school, then the story continues and at first, I got the impression that he knew him a little bit. No, he’s a really big friend of his and I could tell, because of some of the things that he was talking about. Being a big athletics fan, I knew what he saying and could line it all up – like the British high jumper Germaine Mason, who died recently in summer 2017 in a motorbike accident, who Bolt knew. I remembered all of that and Andrae was there, talking about it.
He told us some amazing stories about Bolt and his friendship with him and honestly, I could have just listened to him talk all night. It was just amazing to hear and such an amazing surprise.
Eventually, we tore ourselves away and we headed back to our room, as Mark was really tired by now. I’m not surprised, given he’d barely slept the night before. I think it was catching up by now with me too.
We had this creation waiting for us when we returned…
…again, any offers, anyone? Our stateroom host needs to start leaving a note out for us, so we know what he’s created…
The clocks were going back an hour tonight and the room one had already been reset. Judging by that one, Mark was asleep just after 7:00pm (8:00pm) and I only lasted an hour longer. Our poor stateroom host tried to post something into our room and I had to unlock the door, stick out a hand to receive it and then head back into the room!
The most important thing to me though was that Mark was feeling better, which was a huge relief.
The weather today was cloudy with some sun and temperatures in the low 60s. Today we walked 5.90 miles. The best thing today was scurrying off the boat at the “last minute” to go and get photos of her! The worst thing today was how ill Mark was in the night and how terrible he felt all day. The funniest thing today was being serenaded at breakfast and told “You Are Not Alone”! Today I tried exploring Cobh And the result was it’s a beautiful little place and I’m glad I got to see it. The most magical moment today was hearing Andrae’s stories about Usain Bolt.
Sorry dinner was a bummer.... but Andrae really made up for it! Not only by already planning for tomorrow, but with Usain Bolt stories?!?!! That is AWESOME!! As you know, we're also athletics fans and that is just amazing that you got to chat with someone like that! So incredibly cool.
I'm going with a half-effort attempt at a towel swan.
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Sorry dinner was a bummer.... but Andrae really made up for it! Not only by already planning for tomorrow, but with Usain Bolt stories?!?!! That is AWESOME!! As you know, we're also athletics fans and that is just amazing that you got to chat with someone like that! So incredibly cool.
He was the coolest, best server ever as you'll see as this cruise progresses.
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I'm going with a half-effort attempt at a towel swan.
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Too bad dinner was not up to par! With two nights in a row of sub-par dinners at your table, it makes me wonder if others were complaining as well?
Let's just say that I'm not aware that anyone else did or that anyone else got special treatment with their food choices later on in the cruise. I do know people asked how come we were getting different food...
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It will be interesting to see what the chef makes for you tomorrow night!
Oh just you wait for some of the offerings we had!
Sorry for the hit and miss meals! How frustrating! I can’t wait to hear all about your special requests and how that turns out. How cool that your server knows Usain Bolt! Fascinating!
That was so cool with Andrae to share his stories of Usain Bolt! Especially, with someone as well known a sprinter as he is! Too bad your entree was quite off with the salmon being so dry! At least Mark's was very good and what he needed after his day. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for your custom menu tomorrow!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
That was so cool with Andrae to share his stories of Usain Bolt! Especially, with someone as well known a sprinter as he is!
And with me being such a big athletics fan, that was just amazing for me to hear!
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Too bad your entree was quite off with the salmon being so dry! At least Mark's was very good and what he needed after his day. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for your custom menu tomorrow!
Wednesday 12 September – part one: “bobbing along”…
You know you’re tired when you wake up at 8:10am and one of you has had the equivalent of 12 hours’ sleep (me) and the other has had 13 (Mark). Yes, I think we needed it!
On occasions, I did half wake up, as I knew we were “bobbing along” a bit, shall we say? When you’re moving from side to side so much that you half think you might fall out of bed, you know you’re moving. In fairness, we had been warned and at least we knew it would get better as the day went on.
I eventually got up and moved and just about made it fine to the bathroom and back without walking into anything, so I figured I was up to something a bit more adventurous. A few minutes later, I set out on my morning expedition up to get tea, this time for both of us and also managing not to bump into anything on the way there or back, which was impressive, I thought!
Once I had the tea in the Aulani mugs with the lids safely tightened on, I went exploring out on deck 10. The sky was so beautiful and it was sunny, very different from how I’d envisaged the weather would be out in the Transatlantic. Mind you, I don’t know why I was surprised, as I don’t think you can ever really tell about the weather. I mean, heck, when we went over the North Sea on our Norwegian fjords cruise in 2012 with P&O, I had to buy suntan lotion to stop myself getting burnt, the weather was that beautiful!
As I walked further along deck 10 towards the front of the ship, I could feel the bounce of the ship a lot more. I was very glad we were midship and not forward in terms of our cabin. I cannot being to tell you how buffeted around I was being when I took these shots…
I headed back to the room…
… and we enjoyed our tea, before eventually deciding it was time for breakfast. Off to Cabanas we went. I had this… a bit of an egg fest I will confess
… while Mark was definitely feeling better, judging by the pile of food on his plate!
I got a cranberry juice, then Mark had to go one better….
Well, I wasn’t having any of that. I went and got a large glass as well!
I went and got this for my second course with a hidden Mickey thrown in there for luck!
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Your dinner is off to a good start as the baked brie and soup look so good! 
I know I'd enjoy these. The lobster app doesn't look nearly as good and as you said it wasn't. Looking forward to your entree and dessert!
which has prevented me from getting anything done over the last couple of hours... 
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) and he said that was the best cooked steak he'd had in a long time, so it wasn’t all negative… 
Oh no, there was me thinking it had gone and it was still here. I explained that I’d tried just about everything on it and had no luck with anything, it was always all terrible, so Andrae asked what we wanted. 
as heck it’s a bit like people asking if we know the Royal family (we don’t, just in case you were wondering 
) but it turns out they went to the same school, then the story continues and at first, I got the impression that he knew him a little bit. No, he’s a really big friend of his and I could tell, because of some of the things that he was talking about. Being a big athletics fan, I knew what he saying and could line it all up – like the British high jumper Germaine Mason, who died recently in summer 2017 in a motorbike accident, who Bolt knew. I remembered all of that and Andrae was there, talking about it. 
Our stateroom host needs to start leaving a note out for us, so we know what he’s created… 
Fascinating!
At least Mark's was very good and what he needed after his day. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for your custom menu tomorrow! 
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